Mexico Shifts Focus From Drug War to Economy-Mexico Institute in the News

Still, analysts suggested that Mexico's president-elect was wise to play up a safer theme.

"The way to change the narrative is not to say, 'Security is not as bad as it seems,' " said Christopher Wilson, a scholar at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington. "The way to change the narrative is to talk about other things that are going well, and the economy is a good story now."

Still, Mexico is far from realizing the middle-class society envisioned nearly two decades ago when it signed the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and Canada.